One of the coolest works of art made from recycled materials I have ever seen. Loved everything about this.
From the inside!
Back side.
Perhaps a shaman?
Wish the lighting was not so bright here.
The bench on the inside.
About 100 yards away was a very nice screened in butterfly house. This red Admiral posed for my littler G11 camera inside. They were only three native species that I saw in the house; Monarch, Gulf Fritillaries and Red Admirals.
The fountain in the Pergola Garden created in the early 1900s, it is made of coquina. The steps lead down into the pond. Shame I did not have time to wait for better lighting here. Nice place to sit at the waters edge and enjoy the dragonflies along the edges and herons and egrets over the water in the trees.
Some of the details of the pergola. This is for you Dave!
We walked down this shaded pathway only to find not one but two of these double benches facing each other with an built in arbor over each. The other one was prettier but the light was too bright.
A very cool arch in the 150 foot rose arbor in the camellia garden. No roses on it. Below shows some of the detail of the concrete rose arbor.
Hibiscus over 6 foot tall. We missed the real flower show in the spring when all the azaleas and camellias were in bloom. Can you imagine the amount of networking it took 90 years ago to amass 500 cultivars of camellias, oops I left off a 0 that was 5000 camellias.
Here is a year round flower show IMO. This is Live Oak leaves covered in Spanish Moss.
Here is Resurrection Fern, Polypodium polypodioides on a Live Oak limb. For those of you not familiar with Resurrection Fern it is common in our southeastern US swamps, when it is real dry it'll curl up and look very dead. Give it some rain and it come right back to life as in these photos. A fitting plant for the end of this post as Airlie Gardens has been resurrected in recent years and is now open to the public as well.
Perhaps a shaman?
Wish the lighting was not so bright here.
The bench on the inside.
